War of the gifted
by kveldritha
Summary: The Umbrella Academy fixed Vanya and everything is well - or so they thought. Until Klaus receives a strange message from a dead guy who was killed by some guys who were talking about eliminating The Umbrella Academy and ending the world. So once again, they have to unite and save the world from whatever their enemies throw at them. / follows the TV show, haven't read the comics
1. Chapter 1

Euna sat down next to the man that was lying on the floor. He was scared, but awake, eyes wide open with horror and fear. She loved them that way. She loved watching people die, there was a certain beauty to life leaving a healthy, strong body. But all his energy wasn't lost. It would live on in her own body, she would embrace his energy and turn it into something stronger, better.

"No … please let me go. Please" the man hissed. His voice was full of despair and his body was shaking.

"Why would I do that, silly?" Euna asked. She reached out for his chin and concentrated on the pulsating energy inside of him. She needed this energy. She didn't rush through the process of stealing his energy. Euna could do it in a heartbeat, if she had to, but she enjoyed taking time.

Valdís raised her eyebrow as she approached Euna. "Kill him already. We don't have time for these stupid games."

Euna liked Valdís, but she definitely didn't know how to have a good time. "I don't want to rush it" she replied. "It doesn't hurt to have a good time, does it?" On the other hand, she didn't want to upset Valdís. Arguing with her could get quite ugly, and Euna didn't want her to get mad, so she sighed and took the rest of the man's energy.

"Good. How do you feel?"

"Strong. But I could still use some more energy." Euna stood up and started walking away from the alley where they had brought the guy.

"Later" Valdís promised. "We should meet Enyo and Victor and talk about our next steps. You know what we need to do, right?"

Euna smiled. How could she ever forget? They were destined to do something great. "Yeah. Eliminate The Umbrella Academy and end the world. Can't wait." This was the mission they'd been trained for their whole lives and Euna couldn't wait to steal their energy, too. It would be extraordinary, just like The Umbrella Academy itself. And just like Euna, Valdís, Victor and Enyo.

* * *

Klaus woke up and stared at the ceiling. He still hated this big house with all the memories that kept haunting him and he couldn't tell why he was always coming back here. Sure, he did like some kinky stuff and he enjoyed pain and suffering, but this was not the kind of pain that made his blood flow. This was the kind of pain that would haunt him in his dream, even after fixing Vanya and preventing the apocalypse, being home still didn't feel good.

He closed his eyes again and tried to focus on something else. He missed the drugs. He missed being high and he really missed not seeing dead people all the time, but more than anything else in this world he missed Dave. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes he could still pretend to reach out for his hand, but there was nothing. Falling in love with Dave felt like a lifetime ago, and Klaus was afraid of forgetting anything he'd ever said to him. He had to cherish it, hold it close and put it into a safe place into his heart. There was no place for drugs. But still, he missed being high. Being reasonable sucked. Big time.

When he reopened his eyes, Ben was there, looking at him with a grave (no pun intended) look in his eyes. But he wasn't alone. The ghost of a stranger was with him. He had probably not been older than forty years when he'd died, but his face looked gaunt and wrinkly like the skin of an elderly man. This was new.

"Klaus."

He took a deep breath and sat up. "Okay, what now? Do you want me to call your wife? The police?"

"You're Klaus Hargreeves, right? The Séance."

"Yes. What is it?"

"I have a message for you."

This wasn't atypical, since the ghosts usually wanted something from him. Sometimes they wanted to tell him who had murdered them. Or they wanted to leave a message for their families. Sometimes they only wanted someone to talk. There didn't seem to be a lot of people who were able to conjure the dead. Only one, to be completely honest.

"I don't care." He headed to the bathroom. He felt a little sorry for the ghost, since he didn't have anybody else to turn to, but he really needed to take a bath, listen to some music and forget about the drugs and all the painful memories that kept haunting him. He couldn't handle the ghosts right now.

"Wait!" Ben exclaimed. "It's important."

Klaus took another deep breath and sat down on the edge of the bath tub. "Okay. Spill it."

The man looked into Klaus' eyes and leaned a little forward. "I was killed by a woman called Euna. They said, they want to eliminate The Umbrella Academy."

Klaus frowned and looked at his deceased brother. "That would be us." Well, not exactly, since Ben was already dead, of course, but still.

"It gets worse."

"How?"

"They said that they were going to end the world. They talked about it after I was killed. You need to do something about it."

"Terrific." Klaus didn't know what to think about it. Ending the world sounded … big. After trying to stop an apocalypse, still seeing said apocalypse happen and then going back in time to save both his sister and the world, he didn't know what to make of it. It sounded like an exaggeration, but then again, after experiencing an apocalypse there was no reason of doubting that it could happen again. And even if they didn't mean it literally it would still suck to be killed. Not necessarily for Klaus. He'd be perfectly happy being reunited with Dave, but he didn't want his brothers and sisters to die. So he had to tell them anyway.

"Okay" he said. "I'll tell the rest of the guys. Thank you … I guess?" He still didn't enjoy talking to ghost. Ben was an exception to that rule, since they were brothers and stuff, and it was actually kind of nice having him around. Sometimes. He could still be a huge pain in the ass when he called him out on whatever. So he was quite glad when the other ghost disappeared.

Klaus sighed and looked at Ben. "Five will be delighted, I guess. He didn't get to prevent an apocalypse for some time now. I guess everyone needs a hobby." He put some clothes on and told his siblings that they needed to talk. He hated being in charge, so he'd be happier to get it over with and let Luther and Diego argue about what to do next.


	2. Chapter 2

Being included in some kind of superhero pep talk still felt strange. Vanya knew that their siblings did their best to make up for what happened in their childhood, but she still felt like an outsider. It still felt like she didn't belong here.

Allison took her hand. She had really tried to improve their relationship. Vanya still didn't know what to make of it. She still knew how her dad had treated her, she still knew how both Luther and her dad had locked her up and she would never forget the feeling of never being good enough for anyone. Except for Leonard. Apart from the fact that he'd only used her to make her family pay for his own crappy childhood. Vanya had come to the conclusion that having a crappy childhood didn't excuse for being a cold-blooded psychopath.

It was even stranger that it had been Klaus who'd gathered them together because of some urgent family matter. She'd have expected something like that from Luther or Five, maybe Diego – but Klaus? It seemed like the whole world had been turned upside down since Vanya had discovered her powers. Her powers. It still sounded like a dream. When she had been a child, she had always dreamed that one day, she'd discover her powers and be something special. Well, losing it completely and causing an apocalypse certainly made her special, but she didn't feel that much better.

"Where's Five?" Klaus asked.

Diego shrugged. "Probably flirting with some mannequin" he suggested.

In that moment, Five appeared. He was holding a cup of coffee and taking a sip before leaning against the couch. "What is it?"

"A ghost visited me. He told me that he was apparently killed by some guys who were talking about taking down The Umbrella Academy and ending the world."

Luther blinked. "Come again?"

"I'm not sure what to think of it" Klaus confessed. "But Ben thought it could be important to tell you guys."

Vanya thought about it. Talking about their deceived brother was still strange. She missed him. As a child, she'd been closer with Five. Klaus and Ben had always been the ones sticking their heads together and Five had always stated that these two were probably using the very same brain because he'd said that many of their questions had been stupid, but losing Ben had still been very sad and tragic. Sometimes Vanya felt like that had been the moment defining the breaking point for their family. Everyone had dealt differently with their brother's death, but it had probably been the last straw that broke the camel's back. Shortly after that horrible incident, everyone but Luther had left home. Knowing that Klaus was still talking to him all the time was strange. Sometimes she wished that she could see him as well.

"It makes sense" Five said. He sat down on the couch, staring into the air. He suddenly seemed to be in a place far away. His thoughts probably went back to the future. "The Handler told me that the apocalypse was supposed to happen. I don't like the thought of it, but maybe she was right there. It might happen again. Anything could have an influence on the future. There might be other triggers for the apocalypse."

Luther groaned. "Are you telling us, that all was for nothing? The apocalypse will happen again?"

"You are not listening" Five answered. "I said it might happen again. I need more information to be sure what this is about. Maybe they didn't mean it literally. But we should take this seriously. We have to find out what we're dealing with." He looked at Klaus. "What else did the ghost tell you?"

"Nothing really" Klaus said. "He just wanted to talk to me, yadda-yadda-yadda, then he told me that they seemed to have some issue with us and wanted to end the world."

"But how?"

"I don't think he knows."

"I need you to ask him again. It's important."

Luther cleared his throat. "The last time I checked, I was still the leader."

"Oh yeah?" Diego shot back. "Tell me, how did that work out for us the last time?"

Vanya didn't want to think about it. She still had a hard time forgiving Luther for locking her up. She knew that Allison, Klaus and Diego had been against it, but Luther didn't listen to them. She didn't want to think about it. She still felt horrible about almost killing Allison. She didn't exactly regret killing Leonard – no, Harold – but how could she have used her powers against her own sister? She probably didn't deserve her powers. She knew that Allison didn't think about it this way and that she had forgiven Vanya a long time ago, but Vanya still felt incredibly sorry about it. She had made a lot of mistakes, but being around Luther and remembering how he'd chocked her into consciousness and locked her up in that prison their father had made for her still made her uncomfortable.

"We shouldn't argue about it" she finally managed to say, regretting it in a heartbeat. What was she thinking? This wasn't her fight. She'd never been a part of The Umbrella Academy, and she never would. Having powers wouldn't change a thing.

Again, Allison took her hand, smiling at her. Vanya smiled back. This felt good. She knew that Allison wanted to assure her to be more self-confident. "Vanya's right" she said. Her voice still sounded hoarse, she couldn't speak much, but it was better than nothing.

Diego sighed and didn't reply, but Diego not firing back a snarky comment was almost as good as an apology.

"I know things have been difficult in the past" Luther said. "But we can't go on having endless discussions about everything that went wrong in the past 30 years. We need to move on." He looked at Five. "You're probably right. We need more information on these people. We need to know who they are what exactly it is that they're up to."

Five nodded. "Good."

Luther looked at Klaus. "Do you think that you could conjure this man once more and gather some more information?"

Klaus shrugged. "Honestly? I don't know. I'm gonna try, but I'm still trying to figure out what else I can do with my powers."

Vanya knew that feeling. On one hand, she wanted to know more about her powers, but on the other hand, she was scared of the things she was capable of. Maybe Klaus felt the same way about his powers? She decided to talk to him about this even though Klaus maybe wasn't the best person to have a deep, serious conversation with. His way of joking about everything made it harder to believe that he was actually caring, but she had noticed that sobriety had changed him. It wasn't like he was a totally different person, but he wasn't the brother looking through everyone's stuff and stealing from his siblings to fund his drug habit either.

"Okay" Luther said. "Try that. In the meantime, we're gonna do some research. Maybe we can find some information in the library. Maybe something's been off in town in the last weeks."

Vanya nodded. She didn't really know if she could be of any help here, but she'd try.

Everyone left and Vanya followed Klaus upstairs. "Klaus?" she asked.

He seemed surprised. "Yeah?"

"I know you're busy, but … could I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." He guided her into his bedroom. It was as chaotic as it had always been. When they were children, their father would always check on their rooms. Klaus' room had always been the worst. At least, this time there were neither empty bottles lying around nor a fire trying to consume his bed. Vanya remembered how Klaus had almost burned down the house at least twice. Now there were clothes lying around everywhere and a slice of pizza lay on one of the empty closet shelves. Vanya wasn't even surprised. The good news was that it wasn't alive.

She hesitated, but finally sat down on the edge of his bed. She suddenly felt out of place for talking to her brother about her insecurities. She'd never been very close to Klaus anyway, even though she appreciated that he hadn't been as hard on her for writing that book than some of their siblings. "When I …" She interrupted herself. How could she talk about it as if it was okay? "When I …" She shook her head. This was a terrible idea.

"When you went all cray-cray and tried to kill us all?" Klaus smiled. "Don't worry about it, dear." He lay his hand on her arm. "It's Dad's fault, not yours."

She didn't know what to say. She hadn't expected something like that from Klaus. She knew that Allison had forgiven her, but she still felt insecure about her brothers. She knew that Klaus probably was just Klaus by lighting up the situation, but it still felt good. She tried not to cry and closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Thanks."

"Are you hungry? I'd have to look for it, but I think I have still some pizza left from yesterday."

"I'm fine, thanks." She looked at him. "So … when it happened, you used Ben's power, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I just thought … I mean … aren't you scared?"

"Of what?"

"Of your powers."

Klaus laughed. "All the time." He sat down next to Vanya. "You know, Dad always said that I was only scratching on the surface of what I'm capable of and that he was so disappointed in me because I didn't use my full potential."

She felt like she could relate to that. "I … want to know more about my powers" Vanya confessed. "But I … I'm so afraid of hurting anyone again."

"I get that." He shrugged. "You don't have to if you don't want to. He always told everyone of us what to do, but he's gone. You can decide for yourself, if you want to learn more. If you do, it'll be okay. And if you don't, that's fine, too."

Vanya wasn't so sure if it really was that easy, but she nodded. "Are you trying to learn more about it?"

"I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like it might be useful. But I'm still not that into seeing dead people all the time. We'll see what the future holds. Maybe the apocalypse happens again and we'll all be dead by next week. It's exciting, isn't it?"

Exciting wasn't the word of Vanya's choice to describe it, but coming from Klaus, it wasn't really strange. "I hope everything will be fine" she said.

He just touched her arm again and somehow, it really felt good. She looked at Klaus and remembered that she wasn't the only one who'd been locked up by their father. Klaus had had his fare share, too. "Thanks" she said again. It really felt good not being the only one going through this. Klaus' situation wasn't the same, but it was close enough not to feel all alone.


End file.
